On the Sublime. The Greek Text edited after the Paris Manuscript with Introduction, Translation, Facsimiles and Appendices by W. Rhys Roberts.

LONGINUS, Cassius (c. A.D. 213-273); ROBERTS, W. [William] Rhys (1858-1929) (ed.):

Published by Cambridge: University Press, 1899., 1899

About this Item

First printing of this English translation of Peri hupsous. x, 1 leaf, 288 pp, 1 leaf (ads); illus. Original cloth. Near Fine. There are many English translations of this work -- the two earliest well-known ones are Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux's (1674) and William Smith's, first published in 1739 then reprinted many times -- but differentiating them can be difficult. For example, the Loeb Classical Library edition has been in print nearly 80 years, but the work of Longinus is translated not by Roberts but W.H. Fyfe; Roberts translated Demetrius' On Style for that volume. Near the time of the first appearance of Roberts' translation, A.O. Prickard made another (1906), which was the basis for Grube's translation (1957). This version too has been reprinted recently. Perhaps this all suggests that Roberts' version, not reprinted for 70 years, is the least useful today! While a second edition appeared in 1907 and a third in 1935, I believe the only changes were minor corrections to the 1935 edition. For a lengthy discussion of Longinus and the Peri hupsous, see Richard Macksey's entry in the on-line John Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory & Criticism: 'Harold Bloom has identified Sigmund Freud as 'the last great theorist' of the sublime mode and, linking it to narcissism and repression, proclaims Freud's essay on 'Das Unheimliche' (1919) 'the only major contribution that the twentieth century has made to the aesthetics of the Sublime'. Bloom, himself a major Longinian revisionary of our time, identifies strongly with a canon of 'personalist critics' descending in an Oedipal line from the Peri Hupsous, but he reserves for Freud a central place in the dynamics of influence, repression, and 'crossings.' Over the past four centuries Longinus's text has thus found echoes in many critics and readers; that these echoes have not been identical is but one function of the complexity (some would say the duplicity) of his argument. It is also a gauge, semper ubique, of its author's genius to stimulate the minds and move the passions of his readers.'.

Seller Inventory # 15315

Bibliographic Details

• Title: On the Sublime. The Greek Text edited after the Paris Manuscript with Introduction, Translation, Facsimiles and Appendices by W. Rhys Roberts.
• Publisher: Cambridge: University Press, 1899.
• Publication Date: 1899
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Near Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket